Football

Sweet like chocolate: Swiss-style Champions League league phase nears conclusion but what have we learned?

Posted on by Andy Gardner

Ahead of next week’s fixtures in the catchily-titled Champions League League Phase, we find ourselves five-eighths of the way through the new “Swiss-style” model, making now as good a time as any to review its impact so far.

Prior to the new format being rolled out this season, there was much consternation and gnashing of teeth about what it might bring: the huge new table, more fixtures and almost certainly heavier defeats for the European game’s “lesser” lights.

As it turns out, that hasn’t really been the case. There have been some hefty drubbings dished out, such as Bayern Munich’s 9-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb on matchday one or Borussia Dortmund crushing Celtic 7-1 on matchday two, but on the whole, there have actually been more surprise scorelines than might have been expected.

Results such as Monaco beating Barcelona 2-1 (although Barça’s recent travails made that one not a huge shock), Lille claiming the scalps of both Madrid sides on consecutive matchdays or Sporting overcoming the loss of head coach Ruben Amorim to beat Manchester City 4-1 on matchday four.

It is still hard to predict the final outcomes of the 36-team super-table, but it is clear that some clubs have struggled to meet their historical best – specifically Manchester City, Real Madrid and PSG, with the Parisians looking to be in the most peril.

However, with three games still to play, it is still hard to see all three clubs not making their way through to the knockout stage, even if they find themselves in the play-off stage rather than leapfrogging straight to the final 16.

PSG look at most risk, but with games to come against RB Leipzig, who are set to be the League Phase’s biggest casualties, Manchester City and Stuttgart, who have also underperformed, seven more points looks plausible, which would mean 11 for the final standings and probably a play off spot.

Meanwhile, for Madrid and Manchester City, the competition’s last two winners, of course, a further five points should do the job. Madrid do have to face Italian league leaders Atalanta in their next fixture, but with points already in the bag and games against RB Salzburg and Brest, currently defying expectations in 11th spot, they should be ok. Same goes for City, who despite a terrible run of form domestically should still progress comfortably – they have 8 points to their name and games coming up against Juventus, PSG and Club Brugge.

So while Liverpool, with five wins from five, peer down from the top of Mount League Phase, what does this all tell us? Well, not much more than the previous format, in all honesty.

We’re still most likely to see the “biggest” clubs in the knockout phase, despite the odd travail and  blooded nose along the way. Even if there is a surprise elimination at this stage, that happened in the past too – just last year, we all chuckled heartily at the ongoing malaise at Old Trafford as Manchester United came last in their group. Milan, Newcastle and Sevilla were also among the list of clubs from the big five leagues that failed to make the knockout stages.

If anything, the new format has killed off the previous format’s most egregious failing – that which saw group stage failures rewarded with a parachute into the knockout stages of the Europa League. This at least makes the second and third tier competitions ‘cleaner’ – no last-minute super club additions to swoop in and steal the silverware. Or Sevilla, just for a change.

There is also the argument that more teams in this pre-knockout phase has meant more opportunities for “smaller clubs”, with teams such as Dinamo Zagreb, Club Brugge and – with apologies for highlighting Scottish football’s place in the world – Celtic in with a chance of making it through. However, getting to the play-off round is in effect the same as making the final 32 (ie, a play-off to reach the round of 16), so all the new format is doing is eliminating an extra four teams, which at the moment are likely to be Young Boys, Slovan Bratislava, RB Leipzig (all on zero points) and Bologna (one point).

Should those faltering big clubs make the play-off round, they will then face a two-legged tie against one of the other teams outside the top eight. This play-off is seeded, with the teams from 9-16 drawn against opponents from 17-24, so based on current standings Madrid could face Milan, Benfica or Bayern – or they could be paired with Lille or Brest, who have already sprung surprises in this competition.

This kind of proves the point that this complicated league phase has changed nothing – the competition only really gets going when it reaches the knockout phase, bringing with it the element of unexpected clashes that really matter, with no safety net for underperforming losers.

Instead, all we have really seen from the bloated group stage is more ultimately meaningless encounters between the biggest and richest. So far we have seen Inter beat Arsenal, Barcelona beat Bayern heavily and Liverpool win at Milan, but so what? None if it matters at this stage.

It’s all just the biggest clubs swelling their already stuffed coffers with more cash. More matches as content and more eyeballs and flashy social media highlight reels.

Any stories that have been created so far have centred around negative narratives associated with the names we already know – Mpabbé’s struggles in Madrid, Guardiola’s head-scratching at underperforming City or Slot’s machines taking the table by strorm. There has been practically zero spotlight for Monaco, riding high in 8th, or Brest punching well above their weight. It would have been fantastic to learn more about clubs making headlines like this, but there’s no oxygen for them among all the noise of the big boys chasing clicks.

No one is suggesting that the previous format was loved and created endless classic clashes – the truth instead was a bundle of dead rubbers towards the end of the group stage and maybe one or two games that really mattered. But at least it was over sooner – this seemingly endless League Phase will still be live in the last week of January, meaning extra complication as the transfer window creeps towards slamming shut.

The previous format felt like what it was: a preliminary series of fixtures that ultimately weeded out the sides expected to be eliminated while also creating revenue and security for the biggest clubs. By contrast, the new format does this too, but with less clarity, more meaningless games and with greater threat to the rest of football, portending towards the inevitable European Super League, where inconsequential mid-table clashes between Atleti and Juventus will be the norm while also further distorting domestic leagues by channeling funds to only one club from countries like Denmark, Belgium or Slovakia.

Knockout football always was and always will be the great leveller in football; any team can beat any other on the right day and in the right circumstances, even over two legs. Minimising that format in favour of an expanded league system reduces the risk, creating more opportunities for recovery. And the bigger the league, the more fixtures it creates, the greater the safety net. It only serves to close the shop further, reinforce the exterior window and stretch the arm at which the rest of football is held at bay.

The biggest clashes on famous nights in European competitions always felt so important because they happened so rarely – supply and demand exists in football as in economics, so scarcity increases value. Just spamming the fixture list with more games between the biggest names only makes those encounters less significant in the long run.

No doubt this format will appeal to many fans by creating more fixtures between the biggest clubs, but you really can have too much of a good thing. A dash of syrup in your coffee can add an extra sweet hit, but if you’re already serving yours with multiple spoons of sugar, swirly cream and and a chocolate flake, then you’re probably only heading towards diabetes.

It may have been Messi’s World Cup, but this will soon be Mbappé’s World

Posted on by Andy Gardner

Argentina’s win in Qatar was the perfect way to complete their captain’s career, but the match itself showed that the game’s next great is very much already here.

Lionel Messi, cloaked in the ceremonial Bisht placed on his shoulders by the Emir of the host country, Qatar, collected football’s most iconic trophy and made his way across the temporary platform created for the tournament’s final moment.

As he raised the World Cup, surrounded by his Argentina team-mates, showered in confetti and set against a backdrop of fireworks, arguably the game’s greatest ever player could finally say he had done it all; he has collected all the infinity stones, discovered all the rings of power and even answered the art and literature question to complete a full set of cheeses.

He has done it all and in some style.

While the man once known as ‘The Flea’ may not have been as central a figure in this particular game as he has on so many occasions in the past, he is still the man for the big moments, including all three of Argentina’s goals in this final. It was his penalty that opened the scoring, his neat pass round the corner that sent Alexis Mac Allister in behind France’s defence to create the second and then his sense of presence to be in the right place, at the right time to convert Lautaro Martínez’s rebound and give his side the lead in extra time.

Throughout the tournament, he was the man who gave his side something extra, whether that be on the ball, such as his evisceration of Croatia’s rising star defender Joško Gvardiol in the semi final or in leading his side in the face of adversity, like losing their opening match or seeming to grab defeat from the jaws of victory in the quarter finals against the Netherlands.

But despite being the ultimate victor, Messi certainly couldn’t claim to be the only star of this World Cup final. While his Argentina squad were celebrating their success, France’s leading man, Kylian Mbappé was already looking ahead to a joyous bounceback in four years’ time – or in his own words, tweeted after the match: “Nous reviendrons.” We will return.

For the first seventy minutes of this match, there was only likely to be one winner. Argentina hardly put a foot wrong in the first half and were excellent value for their 2-0 lead at the break, while France looked completely absent and seemingly sunk without a trace, making two substitutions before the interval.

Changing shape might not have had the immediate impact that French coach Didier Deschamps may have hoped for, but eventually the tide turned, powered by 120 inspirational seconds from Mbappé, first scoring from the penalty spot, before finding the net with an outstanding volley to set up a dramatic final 10 minutes.

At this point, the momentum was all with the French, whose changes saw them pack the field with powerful and pacy forwards, stretching the tiring Argentines with every attack – that they were able to resist the French offensive and re-take the lead in extra time is testament to their own collective will and a demonstration of the see-saw nature of this clash.

In converting his second penalty of the night and levelling the game at three apiece, Mbappé became only the second man in the history of the game to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final, in addition to claiming the tournament’s golden boot. He went on to score his third penalty kick of the evening in the shoot-out, but it still wasn’t enough to overturn Argentina.

The way France’s talisman showed up in this game just when he was needed speaks volumes – given the circus that surrounded his hotly-tipped summer move to Real Madrid, which ultimately never happened, there has been growing criticism of Mbappé’s character and his role at PSG, with many casting him as de facto sporting director, influencing the club’s transfer policy and tactical approach to suit his own game. It could have been easy for him to sulk out the closing minutes of this final, throw away his runners-up medal and move on, but, thankfully for those of us in search of a dramatic twist or turn, that wasn’t to be the case.

It’s easy to forget that at 24 years old, this is the PSG forward’s second World Cup final, having effectively announced himself on the global stage in Russia four years ago, scoring the crucial fourth goal against Croatia – a strike which made him only the second male teenager to score in the game’s showpiece clash, an accolade shared with football’s original great, Pelé. That said, his goal in the 2018 final came a full year after completing a move from Monaco to the Paris club in a deal that eventually would be worth €180 million, so this was hardly an unknown hero enjoying a moment in the sun.

In that tournament, his pace and direct running struck fear into the hearts of opponents, most memorably against this year’s vanquishers, Argentina, in the round of 16, when his searing break through the heart of the opponents’ defence saw him eventually hauled down for a penalty that set the tone for the encounter. He would go on to find the net twice afternoon, both with neat finishes, to show his coolness in front of goal to match the physical prowess.

Having been pictured returning to training with his club earlier than instructed, it is clear that he means business and is ready to get straight back into action, hoping to add to his 19 goals so far this season. At club level, the aim for Mbappé and his PSG team-mates must surely be the much-coveted Champions League title, an aim which has thus eluded the club owned by the Qatari state, who have backed them to the hilt financially. With 147 goals from 197 appearances, he is well-set to become one of the game’s all-time greats and to amass an incredible collection of silverware.

From an international perspective, a winter World Cup means that the next major tournament, the European Championship, is now just 18 months away. Qualification for the tournament finals in Germany begin in earnest in March with France early favourites, giving Mbappé and co. plenty to focus on.

Looking ahead to 2026’s finals in North America, should he and France successfully go one step further and win the whole thing, Mbappé could become only the second man in history to feature in three World Cup finals and the first to play in three consecutively. Obviously much can change in the space of three and half years, but he is, without doubt, the focal point of France’s entire team structure and it’s hard to envisage his nation lining up in Canada, USA & Mexico without his name among their ranks.

Coming into Qatar, Deschamps, who has yet to confirm whether or not he will continue in charge of the World Cup runners-up, saw his squad suffer injuries to a number of key players, including stars like Paul Pogba and Karim Benzema. In a way, the injury to Real Madrid forward Benzema – who currently holds the Ballon d’Or as the world’s best player – coming as it did right on the eve of the tournament, may actually have helped les Bleus in the short term, removing any potential doubts over who might be this team’s leader and totem.

Surrounded by emerging talents such as Eduardo Camavinga, Randal Kolo Muani and Aurélien Tchouaméni, as well as experienced support like Antoine Griezmann and Raphaël Varane, Mbappé was the stand out, world class figure in an already-strong squad that looks well-set for the future.

While we should certainly be celebrating the incredible career and talent of Messi, whose crowning glory ensures he receives the adulation that comes with adding the World Cup to his personal palmarés, this final may come to be remembered as a passing of the baton and a shift from one generation to the next.

We already knew that Mbappé had everything to be the best in the world; his performance in defeat in Qatar just confirmed that he could bring it to the surface when it matters most.

A full week in to a World Cup that creates conflicted feelings and leaves a sour taste

Posted on by Andy Gardner

Choosing Qatar to host a global party event like the World Cup was always going to be controversial and raise a number of questions. What were those involved hoping to achieve and where does football go from here?

With a shade over a week now passed of this most unusual World Cup – and over a third of the total games played – it certainly feels like no other major tournament, even as a viewer from a distance.

On the field, it has been the World Cup of shocks; landmark wins for Saudi Arabia and Japan against global heavyweights Argentina and Germany respectively, while other heavily-backed sides, such as Belgium and the Netherlands have yet to set the tournament alight as might have been expected.

France look strong, as do Brazil; Spain have started spectacularly with a 7-0 win while England have already scored six in one game as well as being outplayed in a 0-0 draw with the USA. Generally, the football has been ok – some really closely contested games, more goalless draws than you’d like but on the whole, not bad.

However, even with the football well underway and the tournament taking shape, this is still an event where the action on the field takes a back seat to the wider issues. Prior to the start of the tournament, it was impossible to avoid discussion and analysis of how we came to find ourselves gearing up for a winter World Cup in a tiny desert country with no history or tradition of football.

While the World Cup might not be the pinnacle of football any more thanks to the growth of the Champions League, Premier League and other major competitions in Europe, it still holds a special place in the heart of fans from all corners of the Earth. From a personal perspective, watching the World Cup was where my own passion and love for the game began – in 1990, aged just eight, I knew practically nothing about football, but took it to heart during that summer, watching England reach the semi finals and then discovering that there are lows to accompany the highs.

Eight years later, France ’98 came at a time when my own passion for football was probably as great as it ever would be. I loved that tournament and the players who lit it up – Davor Suker’s goals, Dennis Bergkamp’s winner against Argentina and Zinedine Zidane’s midfield artistry for the hosts. Even now, if I stop and think of a time where I most enjoyed and devoured football, it was that World Cup.

Unfortunately, it is that scale of universal appeal that makes football in general and specifically the World Cup such a valuable target for corporations, governments and individuals to launder their reputation. Both the current World Cup and the 2018 edition in Russia have been used cynically to achieve governmental goals, facilitated by FIFA, a governing body brought to its knees by a series of investigations and corruption allegations.

Both these two tournaments were awarded to their respective hosts in 2010 after ballots held by among FIFA’s Executive Committee. Watching the Netflix documentary FIFA Uncovered just before this World Cup started was illuminating, detailing the scale and depth of corruption among the halls of power in the governing body, where practically every major decision could be connected to illegal payments in order to grease the wheels and gain favour.

Winning the right to host the 2018 World Cup was a key element in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans to stoke nationalism at home and develop a siege mentality among the populous. Alongside the country’s hosting of the 2014 Winter Olympics, where Russia were subsequently exposed for running an industrial-scale doping programme, organising the World Cup went some way to cementing the country’s place on the global scene – while still annexing Crimea in 2014, which started the chain of events that led to this year’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Qatar’s motives for holding the 2022 World Cup are almost certainly less aggressive, but they are still surely rooted in political ends. Qatar is a small country in the Gulf with huge access to valuable energy resources but difficult relations with its near-neighbours, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Going back to before the decision was made to award Qatar the World Cup, the country’s ruling monarchy made a series of plays aimed at gaining a place among the world’s more established societies, most notably France and the UK, often through deals for arms and fossil fuels.

However, the country’s rulers also recognised sport as being an incredibly powerful way of improving their global reputation and fast-tracking a route to rubbing shoulders with the big boys. The country rapidly invested in facilities and overseas expertise through its Aspire academy, looking to provide local athletes with the resources and access to develop their skills and eventually compete with the best in the world.

Over time, those facilities have also played host to multiple global sports events, including the Asian Games and Athletics’ World Championships. Alongside this internal investment, Qatar have sought to gain profile globally by investing in sponsorships, shareholdings and ownerships of European sports giants – perhaps the best known being the purchase of Paris St-Germain in 2011 and multiple sponsorship deals through the state-owned Qatar Airways, including Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

The deal to buy PSG in particular has created many headlines for the country’s government, some positive and some negative. Through a sustained but haphazard strategy of signing some of the game’s best-known players at huge cost, including Neymar from Barcelona for a world-record fee and Kylian Mbappé from Monaco, a pair of deals that undoubtedly inflated the entire transfer market since, PSG have become something of a universal enemy in European football. They consistently win their domestic league by a large margin, while seeming to flounder at a continental level, much to the enjoyment of anyone disagreeing with The Project.

Reports have suggested that buying PSG and then pumping millions of dollars into the French domestic league through a television broadcast deal with Qatar’s state-owned broadcaster beIN Sport was part of a developing partnership between the two countries that went beyond sport. When Qatar Sports Investment (QSI), the vehicle handing out the money, secured the deal to buy the Paris club, it required the blessing of Michel Platini, former superstar of the French national team and then President of Europe’s governing body, UEFA, as well the Republic’s President at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Just a year previously, Platini, a member of FIFA’s Executive Committee and therefore instrumental in the voting for choosing a World Cup host in his role as head of European football, had surprised many onlookers by seemingly changing his mind at the very last moment and choosing Qatar over the USA, as he had been expected to do. Platini would go on to be banned from football administration for life following a series of unexplained payments from FIFA President Sepp Blatter, a judgement which continues to be contested by both.

When the ExCo chose Qatar to host the World Cup, it went against the recommendations of the organisation’s own experts, who felt that the country did not have the infrastructure to hold the competition and also that it would be impossible to play the tournament in its traditional June/July calendar slot.

Qatar is roughly the size of Devon and Cornwall combined with a total population of just under 3 million, which is approximately the same as Greater Manchester. Of those 3 million, around 76% live in the city of Doha, with much of the rest of the country being uninhabitable. In a typical July, the temperature rarely falls below 35° during the day and averages around 42°, meaning that a switch to a winter World Cup was always certain, despite the original plans of the organising committee. Eventually, FIFA decided to move the tournament to the winter in 2015.

Of the eight, air-conditioned stadiums being used for the World Cup, seven had to built from scratch and will mostly be demolished and sold off for parts when the tournament finishes. With roughly 1.5 million people visiting Doha for the tournament, this was likely to be an unprecedented level of influx for the country, which required the construction of hotels, a metro system, a port and a myriad of temporary accommodation. It would also require the complete remodelling of downtown Doha and the construction of effectively an entire new city in the shape of Lusail, the district which will eventually host the World Cup final.

In total, the construction projects required to facilitate the World Cup are estimated to have cost $220 billion dollars – more than all the previous World Cups and Summer Olympics combined, such is the scale of the work needed to host this event.

To complete all that work in such a short space of time and with such a small population, it should come as no surprise that the country has needed to import practically the entirety of its workforce, at immense human cost – it is thought that 6,500 migrant workers have died during this project, with zero compensation for their families. While the controversial Kafala scheme for controlling migrant workers has been repealed during this time, there are still many questions being asked about the rights of those involved in building this World Cup and the lives lost along the way.

As a conservative, Muslim country, Qatar has strict laws in place regarding, amongst other things, consuming alcohol, homosexuality and women’s rights. As the world’s most popular sport, football is enjoyed all over the globe in a variety of different ways and is open to everyone, regardless of race, religion or sexual preference. Choosing to bring the World Cup to a country like Qatar creates a problem in this respect – as FIFA have tried to maintain in the run up to the tournament, everyone is welcome to visit and watch the tournament, but you will need to respect the local laws while doing so. That’s fine, but in a country where it is illegal to be homosexual, you are effectively asking people to be something they’re not in order to watch some football.

The sale and consumption of alcohol is also an issue, even if perhaps not quite so at odds with individuals’ fundamental existence. Having a beer at or before the football isn’t quite a right, but it is an essential ingredient in many fans’ matchday experience. Add to that the last-minute change of plan from the organisers to ban the sale of alcohol from stadium perimeter areas, and you get a sense that this is a country whose values are very much at odds with much of what makes up a typical football match event.

Perhaps if these things and these people go so strongly against the laws of a country and the beliefs of its people that your visitors must change their behaviours and hide their identities, maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to invite them in the first place.

Prior to the tournament, the scale and number of investigative reports into the Qatar government’s approaches to human rights and what might lie in store for visiting fans went through the roof, with players and teams planning to show their support for those affected (often through minimal-effort gestures, in all fairness). On the eve of the first game, we saw the bizarre press conference from FIFA President Gianni Infantino, where he attempted to show empathy for all those groups affected, but ultimately drew a parallel between racial abuse and having freckles while also suggesting that Europeans should spend 3,000 years thinking about their own nations’ past crimes before questioning how Qatar treats people today.

And don’t forget the last-minute decision to threaten players with unlimited sanctions if they chose to wear the unauthorised One Love armband in support of LGBTQ+ rights.

Weighing all of this up makes the decisions taken to arrive at a World Cup in Qatar look questionable at best. This is a country with no history or tradition of football and no real experience of tourism on the scale needed for a major tournament. It is a traditional and conservative country with laws rooted in religion that clash with the culture and nature of football and its supporter base.

In order to bring the tournament to Qatar, it has required changes to the global footballing calendar that will take multiple seasons to unravel, impacting the players involved by adding travel and playing time to their schedules, risking burnout and injury, while leaving players not taking part in the tournament without games for a month.

The scale, size and cost of hosting a World Cup – or Olympics, for that matter – has spiralled beyond the reach of most nations in recent times. It’s no surprise that we now live in a time where the only countries capable of hosting a major sporting event on their own seem to either be controlled by a dictator with an agenda to serve or a petrostate with bottomless pockets (or maybe a government willing to saddle its people with near-eternal debt to service). In future, there surely needs to be a re-think of how major sports events operate and how to make them accessible to more nations.

In the meantime, we’re stuck with the conflicting emotions created by the Qatar World Cup. Obviously we love the action, the football and the drama it brings. There is a purity to international football, protected, to a degree, from the financial disparity that taints the club game and brings a very different spectacle where success cannot just be bought, even if the tournaments themselves seemingly can be.

We want new memories to be made, both for ageing fossils like me and for the next generation of fans so they can forever treasure their own versions of Italia ’90 or France ’98. But we surely cannot allow the sport’s governing bodies to again sell out the game’s crown jewel for their own benefits and for the sportswashing agendas of governments, like it has with this edition.

In my opinion, there is absolutely no way that Qatar should have been chosen to host this World Cup – the financial and human cost of essentially building an entire host venue practically from scratch is not sustainable in any way and can only leave a negative legacy for everyone involved. Not to mention the environmental impact of all those air-conditioned stadiums and flying fans in and out of the country to watch their teams in action.

So on we go, watching the football while placing asterisks next to everything we see. It’s hard to imagine that this is the impact the Qatari government and its people wanted from welcoming the world to its door.

Erling Haaland’s incredible start and what it might mean for the Premier League’s future

Posted on by Andy Gardner

The summer transfer of Erling Haaland to Manchester City may have generated plenty of debate at the time about what this transfer would mean for the future of the Premier League and the wider football ecosystem. Would this make the Manchester club unbeatable domestically and finally take them to the European success they have coveted for so long?

In the time that Pep Guardiola has been in charge of the club, they have developed a finely-tuned, highly structured system, playing to clearly defined patterns and in a style befitting of the Catalan coach and his previous work at Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

Adding the giant Norwegian goal machine to this perfectly-constructed side represented something of a risk at the time; how would he adapt to their style, given his own previous form for offering relatively little in build up play and essentially being all about finding the net? In turn, how would Guardiola adjust his own, firmly-set dogmas around midfield play to accommodate the archetypal number nine, a role often eschewed by City in favour of additional midfield schemers, ignoring the obvious success of Sergio Agüero, himself a very different striker to Haaland.

With 20 goals from his first 12 games, Haaland has enjoyed a near perfect start to life in the Premier League. In addition to scoring hat-tricks in his first three home games, he seems to have struck up a fantastic relationship with City’s key man, Kevin De Bruyne, as well as assisting three goals and linking up superbly with Phil Foden.

On the surface, it should hardly be seen as a huge surprise that a man of Haaland’s ability is thriving playing for a team as strong as City, who have won four of the last five Premier League titles. However, adding a player of his profile to the team’s patterns will have been far from straightforward, so the speed at which everyone involved as hit their stride is remarkable.

By comparison, in response to Haaland’s move to Manchester, recent rivals Liverpool invested heavily in their own number nine, signing Darwin Núñez from Benfica. Since arriving, the Uruguayan has already experienced ups and downs – after scoring in the Community Shield and on his Premier League debut, he was then sent off against Crystal Palace and banned for three matches, stalling his start to the campaign.

And while he did return to the scoresheet in Sunday’s action-packed encounter with Arsenal, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp will no doubt have been hoping for a stronger start to Núñez’s time on Merseyside.

Perhaps even more significant, however, has been the impact of the striker’s arrival on the rest of the Liverpool side, who currently sit tenth in the early Premier League table, having lost twice and drawn four times already.

At their energetic best, Klopp’s Liverpool have plundered goals from the wide players, particularly Sadio Mané, whose presence has been sorely missed since his summer move to Bayern Munich, and Mohamed Salah, who has only scored two Premier League goals so far this campaign.

Implanting Núñez into this Liverpool team seems to have had a noticeable effect on Salah’s form – this time last year, the Egyptian winger was imperious, scoring great goals and plenty of them. Drifting in from the flank to take up threatening positions in the inside forward channel or just as happy bringing the ball in from wide to create his own chances, Salah was seemingly unstoppable – at least until his domestic form took a back seat during the African Cup of Nations.

Since then, Salah has been without doubt a less potent force in Liverpool’s attack and the addition of Núñez seems only to have further blunted his threat, forcing him wider and deeper, even when Roberto Firmino or Diogo Jota have been leading the line.

Liverpool seem to have lost much of the balance and structure that has made them so effective in recent seasons, with much debate around the role of Trent Alexander-Arnold defensively, where previously the conversation was only about how superb he was as a creative force. Instead, it now seems that the Anfield side are struggling at both ends of the pitch, forcing the entire team to sit deeper and rely on moments of individual brilliance rather than the elite-level team ethic and relentless pressing that took them so far.

This is in stark contrast to City, who seem to have had no problem at all in evolving their play to thrive on the direct running and penalty box poaching of Haaland. If anything, his inclusion in the side may have created additional space between the lines for the likes of De Bruyne, Foden and Jack Grealish, who has posed more of a threat this season than during the last.

Prior to signing Haaland, City shipped out two other forwards the shape of Raheem Stirling an Gabriel Jesus, both of which may have competed with the Norwegian for space in behind opposition defences, alleviating the kind of issues that Liverpool have encountered with Núñez and Salah.

When you consider how deep most defences sit when trying to nullify City, it is even more impressive that they are able to carve their way through so effectively and regularly create the chances on which Haaland is thriving so. In fact, watching this City team in full flight is nothing short of thrilling, knowing that they can – and usually do – score at will. How long that kind of feel-good factor persists is another question, because if the Premier League is headed into Bundesliga/Ligue 1 levels of domination, it is hard to see this being enjoyable forever.

That in itself raises a series of questions about what comes next. One of the main selling points of the Premier League product (excuse the vile rhetoric), has been the unpredictable nature of the competition – the self-styled ‘best league in the world’ requires that any team can beat any other on any given day. Of course, this has rarely been actually true, hence why the title is usually claimed by one of three, at a push four, clubs, but the promise of unforeseen events is enough to feed the narrative beast.

Without the phenomenal start made by Arsenal this season, the Premier League would already look much like a case of when City would claim the title rather than if – Guardiola’s side have scored ten more goals than other side so far after just eight or nine games and no-one has conceded less. They also comfortably have both the highest expected goals for and lowest against, running teams ragged with seeming ease and providing threats from all angles.

Perhaps one element of uncertainty in this season is the unprecedented mid-season break to accommodate the winter World Cup in Qatar. It’s impossible to predict how this will affect all involved, both on an individual level and in terms of their roles within their respective teams, other than speculating that those with the biggest and deepest squads will probably deal with it most comfortably.

Alternatively, will those players not involved in the World Cup, including Salah and Haaland, suffer from having their season disrupted for a month? How will they handle returning to action and maintaining their form?

If the current form of City and their rivals continues throughout the rest of this season, neutral followers will be hoping that Arsenal can continue their imperious start to the campaign and maintain a title challenge.

Otherwise, the only topics of conversation for the rest of this season will be around the goalscoring feats of Haaland and just how many records he can break. Having already become the fastest player to reach 10 and 15 goals, he will no doubt have his sights on the Premier League records for a season – 32 in a 38 game campaign and 34 in a 42 fixture calendar. He may even be eyeing up a record that many think could stand forever: Dixie Dean’s 60-goal season in 1927-28 – on current form, Haaland is on course to score 63 times this season, although surely he cannot maintain that level of lethality.

Can he?

Real Reign Supreme: Europe’s Most Elite Club Stay On Top

Posted on by Andy Gardner

When Vinícius Junior found himself in space to find the net with what turned out to be Real Madrid’s sole shot on target in the entire Champions League final on Saturday evening in Paris, it felt strangely inevitable yet also something of a surprise.

That moment in itself was essentially a condensed version of Real’s entire campaign – while it seems far-fetched to view the competition’s most successful side in history, now having won European club football’s highest honour 14 times, as something of an underdog, that is kind of true.

Perhaps a more fitting characterisation would be of old-money establishment putting the new-money upstarts in their place, with a run to the final that included victories against Paris St Germain and Manchester City either side of eliminating sanction-stricken Chelsea. In all three of those two-legged ties, this Real side, packed with ageing superstars seemingly playing on beyond their best, somehow found a way to get past their opponents when it seemed impossible.

In each of those knockout ties, Real were seemingly dead and buried, from turning the PSG tie around in the last 30 minutes, through taking the Chelsea quarter final to extra time and on to that incredible stoppage time flurry against City when 3 goals in the 90th minute turned a 3-5 deficit into a 6-5 win on aggregate. That this team keeps finding paths to victory in all those circumstances speaks volumes for the mentality of their players and coach, Carlo Ancelotti.

Once again, in this final against Liverpool, defeat looked most likely but thanks to a combination of an outstanding goalkeeping performance from Thibaut Courtois and a collective determination to keep soaking up pressure, this team kept Jurgen Klopp’s Reds at bay before exploiting one of few potential gaps in Liverpool’s defence – namely the possibility of finding space behind star wing-back Trent Alexander-Arnold – to score the game’s only goal with half an hour still to play.

Coming in to the match, a Liverpool win looked the most likely outcome; Klopp has assembled a fantastic team built on hard work, collective excellence over individual brilliance and the forcing of errors through intensity. The creative genius of Alexander-Arnold, the explosive pace and goalscoring feats of Mohamed Salah and the silky-smooth assurance in defence of Virgil van Dijk – there’s no doubting that this side is among the very best – which also shows just how good the current Manchester City side is to shade them in the Premier League title race.

However, there’s just something about this Real team – whether it be the experience of Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Casemiro in midfield, the explosive talent of Vinícius out wide or the scruff-of-neck number 9 play of Karim Benzema, they just keep finding a way to navigate through almost any situation to victory.

Surely much of the praise deserves to go to Ancelotti; this time last year, the Italian had led Everton to an un-noteworthy 10th place in the Premier League, raising questions about his future and perhaps signalling the end of his time at the top table of coaching. When he resigned from his post at Goodison Park to return to the Santiago Bernabeu, many eyebrows were raised, with few expecting him to succeed in the shadow of Zinedine Zidane, despite his second spell in charge of the club having failed to live up to the success of his first, when they claimed a hat-trick of Champions League wins.

This latest success makes Ancelotti the first coach to win the Champions League on four occasions – twice with Real and a further twice with AC Milan. In addition, his record of having won domestic league titles in Italy, England, France, Spain and Germany demonstrates his ability to adapt and develop a winning formula wherever his travels take him. In a footballing world of philosophies and blueprints, where winning isn’t always enough and defining a whole new way of playing the game seems to be desired, Ancelotti’s style seems to be a far more basic one: just win. With style, if you can.

That has been exactly what Real have brought to this year’s Champions League campaign – when the odds have been against them, they’ve managed to stay in games and force their way back into contention, maximising their steadfast belief that they would ultimately come out on top. Benzema in particular has stood out in this team, free at least from his role as Ronaldo’s wingman; his first-leg hat-trick at Stamford Bridge was the highest of highlights, but Modric and Kroos are equally as essential to Real’s success with their unwavering consistency and ability avert danger by shifting the play from one area of the pitch to another under pressure. As a midfield pairing, their understanding of the space they occupy and how to find more elsewhere without sacrificing possession is unrivalled, helping Real avoid the unforced errors that Liverpool impress upon most.

Perhaps on another day, Liverpool might have scored from at least one of their first half opportunities and put this game to bed. Had that have been the case, however, this season’s form suggests that Real would probably still have clung on in this final and again managed to snatch an unlikely victory. As it was, the longer this game went without a goal, the more visibly Liverpool became frustrated and the more a Real win looked on the cards.

When Federico Valverde’s cross found its way to the net via Vinícius’s well-timed run and finish, it felt beyond one of those entirely predictable moments that turn games and more akin to the exertion of will by an empirical force. That sense of the established power ruling through tradition and entitlement, manifested in this case through unwavering confidence in their ability come out on top. They just know that they will ultimately win, so they do.

As a result of their historical success in the European Cup and Champions League, no other club is as closely tied to the competition than Real. This in itself is hugely ironic when you consider the role played by the club and their president, Florentino Perez, in trying to kill UEFA and its flagship tournament by forming and flogging the European Super League fiasco a little over 12 months ago.

So after all, despite that attempt at a coup de t’at last spring, European football’s most haughty member of the establishment were able to flex their muscle on the field when it mattered most and keep their hands on the sport’s biggest prize, which does make it difficult to totally commit to their underdog, against-the-odds journey to lifting the trophy.

Just when you think this team, this club and perhaps even this category of super club – lacking the bottomless pit of petrodollars of their rivals – has done all it can and reached the end of the road, they somehow find a way to stay in the game, stay in the competition and stay relevant in the sport. The bloodline continues, the monarch refuses to die and the Champions League’s kings just keep on winning.

Everything Still to Play For in Dramatic Third Tier Finale

Posted on by Andy Gardner

Plymouth play host to MK Dons in a final-day fixture with many issues left to be settled and multiple potential outcomes.

As League One enters its final week, it is not exaggerative to say that this season has been like no other. While it looks as though Wigan Athletic should secure the title and climb to the Championship, a host of permutations, some more likely than others, mean they could still finish outside the top two and miss automatic promotion all together, while four sides competing for three play-off berths are separated by just one point point and only two goal difference.

Normally it would seem hyperbolic to suggest, but it is practically impossible to predict what might happen.

The Latics could have secured promotion at home to Plymouth Argyle on Saturday, but were held to a draw that saw the visitors reach 80 points, a figure they share with Sunderland and Wycombe Wanderers, which would normally be comfortably enough to secure a top-six finish and a place in the play-offs.

However, with Sheffield Wednesday currently seventh on 79 points – and with two games remaining – it is not inconceivable that a side could muster 83 points this campaign and not make the play-offs, something which has never been seen before at this level.

In fact, the last time a team secured 80 points and missed the end-of-season promotion fixtures was 2002/3, when Tranmere Rovers were the unlucky outfit. That season was dominated by Wigan, who amassed 100 points to top the division – this time around, they could reach 95 if they win their final two fixtures. That said, in 2009/10 Southampton were docked 10 points for financial irregularities; had that deduction not happened, Huddersfield Town would have finished seventh despite having 80 points.

While Wigan look certain to secure their place in the Championship next season, the second automatic spot remains up for grabs. Rotherham, who have been there or thereabouts all season, currently occupy second place but are level on points with MK Dons. Both teams have stumbled in recent weeks, but while Rotherham overcame Oxford this Saturday, the Dons claimed a vital win at home to Morecambe. The Millers travel to Sunderland on Tuesday evening in a huge game that could have significant impact on all the clubs involved in the run-in.

A win for Rotherham at the Stadium of Light would see them as-good-as promoted going into their final day fixture at Gillingham with a three point lead over the Dons and a goal difference advantage worth a point, especially with the MK side travelling to Plymouth, where their hosts have enjoyed excellent home form this season.

One potential reason for the near-unprecedented high points tallies at the top of the table could be the low accumulations at the bottom; going into the final week, Gillingham have 40 points from 45 games while Fleetwood – currently one position outside the drop zone – have 40 from 44.

With tough fixtures remaining – the aforementioned Rotherham for the Gills, Wednesday and Bolton for Fleetwood – it remains possible that 40 points could be enough to beat the drop, which would be a first for the third tier (the lowest previously recorded as Oxford United’s 45 in 1999/2000).

Even though this has been a wildly unpredictable division, it’s possible to identify a big and possibly growing gap between the teams at the top and those at the bottom. It’s long been thought that the gulf between Premier League and Championship is creating yo-yo teams like Fulham and Norwich, but something similar is developing between tiers two and three – should Rotherham secure promotion, it would be their third in five seasons, while Peterborough, Barnsley and Charlton Athletic, to name just a few, have all suffered relegations from the Championship in recent seasons within a year or two of winning promotion.

Before the start of this season, there were eleven or possibly twelve sides with legitimate ambitions for promotion from League One and maybe a couple more with hopes of making the play-offs. While some of those pre-season contenders have struggled – namely Ipswich Town and Charlton, who go into the final game of the campaign 11th and 12th respectively. Whoever misses out on promotion this year can bank on those two clubs, plus a number of others, regrouping and challenging next time around.

That Plymouth Argyle go into the final game with their play-off destiny in their own hands shouldn’t be overlooked as an outstanding achievement. 2020/21 saw the Pilgrims finish 18th after a terrible second half of the season, which led some pundits to predict a potential relegation battle.

After some smart recruitment in the summer, particularly bring in a completely new three-man defence in Dan Scarr, Macauley Gillesphey and James Wilson, Argyle went on an incredible run at the start of the campaign, losing just one of their first seventeen games. That sequence saw Ryan Lowe’s team hold on to first place in the table all the way up to Christmas, an achievement that saw the manager eventually catch the attention of Championship club Preston North End.

Following Lowe’s departure to Deepdale in December, Argyle moved quickly to appoint his assistant – Steven Schumacher – as his replacement, a smart move which has seen the Greens remain stable and adapt quickly, playing attractive football and ultimately earning the new boss the League One Manager of the Month award for March.

Waiting for the teams to arrive before kick off between Wycombe Wanderers and Plymouth Argyle on Good Friday, 15th April

A tough string of fixtures towards the end of the season has seen Argyle struggle in recent weeks, particularly a demoralising 2-0 defeat at fellow play-off contenders Wycombe Wanderers, but they will know that a positive result on the final day will give them a great chance of securing an unexpected top-six spot.

Saturday’s visitors to Devon, MK Dons, would have been among most people’s expected candidates for promotion before a ball was kicked this season. A mid-table finish in 2020/21 came after an excellent finish to the campaign under hot managerial prospect Russell Martin, who joined the Dons in 2019 and established a successful, possession-heavy approach.

After a big-spending summer, Martin walked out on the Dons on the eve of the new season, leaving the club in the lurch to join Championship outfit Swansea City. Despite being rocked by Martin’s departure, the Dons made a smart managerial appointment, hiring the previously unknown Liam Manning. Since his arrival, the Dons have steadily grown into promotion contenders despite needing to replace a number of important loan players and midfield star Matt O’Riley in the January window, something which could easily have de-stabilised the squad and undermined their campaign.

Although they too have stuttered in recent weeks, losing back-to-back games against Sheffield Wednesday and Oxford United, Manning’s Dons have really found their groove since Christmas, with the defeat against the Owls ending a run of 15 games unbeaten and being only their second loss since 11th December.

By the time these two sides meet next Saturday, some of the remaining issues could be all but settled, which could totally change the complexion of this fixture.

Whatever happens between now and then, both clubs have overcome adversity and unexpected challenges throughout the campaign and although their end-of-season emotions could swing wildly from delight to despair, they should both be extremely proud.

Spurs Trio Send a Message to Conte in Impressive Liverpool Performance

Posted on by Andy Gardner

Whether it was by luck or design as a result of contending with a flurry of Covid cases in his squad, Tottenham manager Antonio Conte made a series of changes for the Premier League clash with Liverpool at the weekend, with Dele Alli, Tanguy Ndombele and Harry Winks returning to the side after respective spells on the sideline.

All three turned in strong performances and sent the Italian coach reminders that their futures might be in North London after all despite persistent rumours suggesting they might all be headed for the exit in the upcoming January transfer window. 

In a game that was played out with little in the way of a settled pattern or structure, ultimately resulting in an action-packed 2-2 draw, Spurs took the lead through another player looking to send a reminder of his talent, Harry Kane, after an excellent through ball from Ndombele.

The Frenchman is the definition of a mercurial talent; one who arrived at White Hart Lane in the summer of 2019 while Mauricio Pochettino was still in charge. Including the Argentinian, Spurs are now on their fourth full-time manager since Ndombele’s arrival and it is arguable that none of those bosses have been able to coax his best performances out on a regular basis.

A player who, when at his most confident and secure, can be a wizard on the ball, conjuring tricks and skills to occupy a dozen YouTube showreels, Ndombele may be stifled by the pace and physicality of the Premier League, although his successful time in France with Lyon and Amiens, where the game is hardly pedestrian, would suggest otherwise.

What seems more likely is that a player and character who thrives on freedom and being given space tactically to express himself is finding the transition to structure and discipline to be difficult, unsurprisingly. This is further exacerbated when you consider that his full-time bosses at the Lane include Jose Mourinho and Nuno Espirito Santo, two managers who prioritise the collective and solidity over individuality and expression.

Whether or not Conte can find a role that suits Ndomble will be pivotal to how his spell with the club plays out, as shoe-horning him into a hard-running, up-and-back midfield duty looks unlikely to get the best from him – especially when there are others in this squad capable of doing that particular job to a higher level.

Alli, meanwhile, has been the Premier League player most consistently linked with a move to Newcastle United, with the newly-rich Mapies rumoured to be keen on just about any player not holding down a regular place in their current side.

After exploding onto the League One scene in 2011 with his local side, MK Dons, including an eye-catching performance in a 4-0 win over Manchester United in the League Cup, Alli rapidly ascended to exulted levels, lighting up the Premier League and the Champions League at the heart of Pochettino’s energetic Spurs team.

He seemed to be a perfect, modern footballer – equal parts athletic, technical and creative with an eye for a goal and a keen sense for a late run into the box. His footballing relationships with Kane and Heung-Min Son were devastating for opponents and endearing for Spurs fans as he quickly became something of a darling for the White Hart Lane faithful.

Standout moments for Alli in his early Spurs days were a spectacular goal against Crystal Palace where he juggled the ball before turning and volleying home and a brace in a 3-1 win at Chelsea, the club’s first success at Stamford Bridge in 28 years. He collected the PFA Young Player of the Year Award in 15/16 and 16/17, becoming only the third player to claim the trophy twice in succession since its inception in 1974 and a strong showing in the 2018 World Cup sparked rumours of a possible move to Real Madrid.

However, after signing a six-year contract in 2018, Alli’s career has somewhat stalled – under Mourinho, he struggled to nail down a regular place in Spurs’ starting eleven, with the Portuguese manager feeling that he wasn’t a midfield player but seemingly not trusting him enough to find a place for him in attack.

Despite making 38 appearances in 18/19 and 19/20, Alli had drifted into something of a peripheral position at Spurs and only featured in 15 Premier League games in the whole of 20/21, a season which saw Mourinho’s side initially start well before fading badly after football’s restart following the suspension for Covid. If anything, Alli made more headlines that season for his on-screen dealings with Mourinho during the Amazon All Or Nothing documentary than for his on-field performances.

This campaign started promisingly for Alli, with Nuno finding a regular role for him in a deeper midfield position, but by the end of October there was frustration on both sides, with the former Wolves manager eventually omitting him from his matchday squads.

In the end, somewhat predictably, things didn’t work out for Nuno at Spurs and the former Porto goalkeeper was relieved of his duties after just four months in charge, making way for Conte’s arrival in November.

The Italian coach is known for playing a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 formation where hard work and sacrifice are key, suggesting that it might be difficult for Alli to find a place – however, there were similar thoughts around another player with Spurs connections, Christian Eriksen, during the 20/21 season at Inter Milan. Conte was thought to not be a fan of the Danish playmaker, to the point of looking to offload him in the January transfer window. However, Inter’s owners insisted that the former Juventus boss should play with the toys he already had before any further additions, and after some tactical tinkering, Eriksen played a central role in the Nerazzuri claiming their first league title in a decade.

Against Liverpool, Alli showed the kind of verve and intelligence that makes him a dangerous player for Spurs, joining rapid breaks to either create opportunities for others or find himself in position to take chances himself – in fact, it was only an excellent save from the Reds’ ‘keeper Alisson that denied Alli from doubling his goal tally for the season.

If Alli could return to something like his form of 2016, 17 or 18, then Spurs would have an outstanding player on their hands, capable of match-winning moments on the biggest stages. Remarkably, he is still only 26 years old, so to write off a player of his undoubted talent would be a huge waste and one that could come back to haunt Spurs if he were to join a rival Premier League club.

Winks, meanwhile, is perhaps a player who has yet to find his place or to reach his peak. A busy midfielder who connects play and shuttles the ball to different areas rather than springing open defences with splitting passes, Pochettino described him as being in the mould of Barcelona icons Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, which might seem like lofty praise, but indicates his disposition as a contrast to more physical athletes in the squad at the time like Victor Wanyama or Moussa Sissoko.

Fast-forward to 2021 and Winks remains with Spurs while many others in midfield have moved on. At the same time, the club have shelled out on the likes of Giovani Lo Celso, who operates in similar spaces to Winks, reducing his opportunities to hold down a place in the side.

His role in a team is probably more along the lines of a deep-lying playmaker, attracting the ball from his team-mates in defence and then recycling possession before creating space for others to catch the eye further up the field.

Players like Winks have often struggled in the English game, where pace, power and getting stuck in will always be favourable characteristics. This is perhaps best characterised at Spurs by the arrival of Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, who has seemingly secured a regular place through a combative and industrious approach to the game.

The issue for Winks is that it is hard to imagine him being a regular starter for any of Spurs’ rivals; that said, against Liverpool he played an important role in Spurs’ midfield and demonstrated that he is more than capable of mixing it with the likes of Naby Keita in the Reds’ midfield.

This season he has only appeared in five Premier League fixtures, but if he can show more of the kind of performance he put in against one of the League’s best sides, there’s no reason to think he shouldn’t feature in Conte’s future plans. 

At the Wheel

Posted on by Andy Gardner

Argyle’s full-circle journey that sees a winning run ended by Charlton before returning the favour at Home Park

The real beauty of following a football team outside the Premier League is the sheer unpredictability of the story that makes up the season. More generally, it’s the possibility of a wide range of outcomes that makes pretty much all sports so engaging and enthralling. This League One campaign for my team, Plymouth Argyle, has so far been much better than almost anyone would have predicted, with the team recovering from defeat on the first day of the season to embark on a 16-match unbeaten run.

That streak of results came to a shuddering halt on Saturday 20th November away to Charlton Athletic, which just happened to be my second Argyle match of the season, with my attendance seemingly predicating an outcome that was completely foreseeable.

That’s always the issue with any sequence of results, especially one so positive and so long – eventually it has to come to an end. Argyle defied all the odds to be in the position they were going into this game, while the hosts themselves were recovering from a shocking start that cost manager Nigel Adkins his job, meaning the Addicks were being marshalled on a temporary basis by former player Johnnie Jackson. Under his stewardship, Charlton have improved hugely – they were terrible when I saw them lose 2-1 at MK Dons in August – and they undoubtedly deserved this 2-0 win at the Valley.

Moments before kick off at the Valley; 26,000 fans in attendance, including 3,000 visitors

Being a supporter in exile – or ‘up the line’ as it was always known in he Westcountry – adds a layer of detachment from the team that can make it hard to keep up. One of the really great things about supporting a team is the immersion it brings, especially in a one-club community where there are no local rivalries to contend with. When I was young, I remember my parents receiving local newspapers – Western Morning News and Evening Herald – where Argyle were the entire focus of local sports coverage, with match reviews, previews, transfer rumours and conjecture around matches meaning it was easy to keep up to date and feel part of the journey.

Being 250 miles away makes that more tricky, although the wealth of online media makes that easier, even if club-controlled content is, at the very least, polished.

After that phenomenal string of results came to an end in South London, there was an instant demonstration of the importance of momentum in sport with Argyle losing their following two league games against sides chasing promotion as both Wycombe and Wigan came away from Home Park with all three points.

Form and momentum in sport can be so important, but also so fragile. One minute you can be flying and everything feels easy, happening almost naturally with the minimum of effort. That positive sensation can be incredibly difficult to maintain and often there can be little or no way to identify what makes everything click for so long.

On the flip side, that momentum can switch almost instantly and those games where a win was snatched or a draw somehow claimed against the odds become so much harder to find and all of a sudden, it can feel like trying to turn the tide of defeats. It must be incredibly difficult for people in sport to handle momentum in this way – how do you maintain the positive outcomes when you know they can’t last forever and how do you arrest the slide before it becomes insurmountable?

After a brief break to win at Rochdale in the FA Cup, Argyle’s next league game was a trip to somewhere far more familiar to me, MK Dons at stadiumMK.

The day before the trip to Milton Keynes, Argyle took perhaps a more significant blow to their ambitions than a couple of disappointing recent results with news emerging that manager Ryan Lowe would be leaving to join Preston North End. Ryan is a Liverpudlian through-and-through and the vast majority of his career prior to taking the Argyle hotseat has been in and around the north west of England. His previous job saw him take Bury to promotion from League Two with a side playing expansive, attacking football, something he has successfully transplanted to Plymouth, only for the club to succumb to years of appalling mismanagement and ultimately going out of business.

Argyle Twitter went into something approaching meltdown on the day the rumours of Lowe’s departure began to surface, with fans showing their displeasure by giving oxygen to all manner of salacious rumours. Fans are always very quick to turn on players and managers who they feel have wronged their club and this was the case, with many appearing to cite Lowe’s reluctance to relocate to Devon as a sign of him never really committing to the role.

I think it’s important at this point to remember that football people are people too – when Lowe and his managerial team lost their jobs as a result of Bury’s collapse, they would have been in a position of needing to take up a new gig to protect their careers, reputations and to keep a roof over their families’ heads. As a man in his early 40s, Lowe has a settled family in the north west and moving them to a new city, hundreds of miles from home, potentially taking children out of schools and expecting them to settle instantly is, at best, unlikely.

Instead, and as is common in football, he would have taken temporary accommodation in Plymouth, either a long-term stay in a hotel or by renting an apartment, working at training during the week, leading the team into matches and maybe getting home to see his family when the schedule allows.

Add to that the additional restrictions created by the last 18 months in a global pandemic and trying to maintain a connection to his family would have been more difficult than ever.

With this in mind, when he was presented with the chance to return home with a club a division higher (at the moment), it’s hardly a surprise that Lowe took the chance to move to Preston. Even if Argyle are capable of winning promotion to the Championship, Devon will always be a long way from home and that separation will continue to put strain on a man, his family and their happiness.

I don’t blame him at all for making the switch, even with Argyle enjoying a fantastic first half of the season, as it’s impossible to know when the next chance might be. In addition, the ‘life expectancy’ of a manager in the Football League is incredibly short – what would have happened to Lowe if the team’s form had taken a dip, as it did last season, and all of a sudden his job is at risk?

Stepping into the manager’s shoes for the team’s trip to Milton Keynes was his own assistant, Steven Schumacher, making for a sensible appointment that guarantees stability while also providing him with an opportunity to step up and take charge of a team for the first time. Schumacher has been instrumental in establishing the team’s style of play and he will know the characters that make up the dressing room, having worked with them since the start – it strikes me as a situation that works for everyone, especially with Argyle pocketing compensation for Lowe’s departure.

I was able to switch my season ticket seat at stadiumMK for a spot in the away end, creating an unfamiliar feeling to somewhere I know so well – I was there when it was a big concrete whole in the ground and again when it first welcomed football as well as attending some great moments in my time working for the Dons. Taking a seat in the away section for this game was a first for me and it was an interesting change of perspective.

The game itself, which was live on Sky on a Wednesday evening, was actually pretty terrible. The hosts capitalised on a couple of mistakes in Argyle’s defence to take the lead after 20 minutes and then seemingly tried to remove any life from the encounter by reducing the match’s tempo to practically zero.

Argyle made changes after the break and took the game by the scruff of the neck – in particular, the introduction of midfield playmaker Danny Mayor changed the game, and it was no surprise when he was involved in the equaliser, scored by Conor Grant, with about 25 minutes to go. Both sides went on to strike the woodwork before the end, but with 45 minutes of dominance each, a draw was probably the fair result.

The equaliser gave rise to Argyle’s fans celebrating their new manager’s reign with chants of ‘Schuey’s at the wheel’ and ‘Shoes off if you love Schuey’. I was far too cold to be exposing my feet to the concrete steps, but it was a bizarre sight to see so many young lads waving their footwear behind the goal.

Shoes off if you love Schuey: Argyle fans celebrate their new gaffer by raising their footwear

Seeing stadiumMK as a visitor was an eye-opening experience; it is a fantastic stadium, no doubt, and while it is easy to criticise the club for lacking the support to generate the atmosphere it deserves, games there do lack the intensity of a large crowd, with such a huge percentage of the ground sitting empty and large gaps between fans as a result. It’s great for social distancing, but it  does nothing for bringing supporters together and creating the sense of community and togetherness that fosters support and emotion.

Whether or not MK will ever truly have a team befitting of this wonderful stadium remains to be seen. I hope it does, but my personal experiences from this season have left me feeling indifferent towards the team, primarily because the matchday experience lacks much of the edge and energy that makes going to football such a great event.

Argyle’s next away day probably provided the exact opposite atmosphere with the prospect of English football’s longest trip by way of a trek to Sunderland. I had considered making this journey myself as the Black Cats’ Stadium of Light home is a ground I’ve yet to visit – however, I was left feeling inadequate after deciding it was a trip too far for me after learning that over 1,000 away fans did make the trip. Perhaps next season, depending on the two clubs’ respective outcomes this campaign, when I’ll have the majority of my Saturdays back after not renewing my season ticket at stadiumMK.

It’s incredible to think that so many fans made that trip and it must have been heartbreaking to see Argyle go two down in the first 13 minutes, but these things can happen and they so often do. In the end, Argyle claimed a goal in the second half to lose 2-1, meaning that their 16-game unbeaten run was instantly followed by four defeats in five in the league, including a draw and a defeat for the new manager.

But football has a strange habit of weird sequences and symmetries; almost exactly a month after seeing their bubble burst on a Saturday afternoon in South London, Argyle would welcome Charlton to Plymouth for the return fixture and the first for Jackson since being confirmed as the Addicks’ full-time manager.

After a start which saw the visitors come close to scoring twice in the first 20 minutes, Argyle took the lead in first half stoppage time through Kieran Agard and after the interval they created the better chances, deservedly claiming the win despite being unable to double their lead.  I would’ve loved to have been there for this clash – Schumacher’s first home game in charge and a worrying dip in form turned around just in time for the busy festive period (Covid cancellations allowing), but unfortunately that’s the nature of being an up-the-line fan.

Even though I’ve only seen Argyle in action three times so far this season and I was really apprehensive about how I’d take to following them again after so long, I’ve absolutely loved the experience so far. While Premier League clubs seem to be more detached from their fanbases and communities than ever, becoming essentially the content generation departments of corporate investment growth conglomerates, it’s been fantastic to re-connect with the club that fostered my original love for going to matches and actually watching football.

And while it’s obviously easier to become attached to a winning team, it’s not as straightforward as that – seeing the team encounter and overcome the challenges that are inevitable in the course of a season are what makes football – and, more broadly, sport – so enduringly engaging. You hope it will go well, you expect that it won’t and whichever way it goes, you just have to roll with it.

When things are going well, you have to make sure you ride the wave and remember the good times, because when the coin is flipped and you’re on the end of a sticky patch, the memories of the good times can keep you going.

Football, Grassroots, Photography, Sport

Parklife

Gallery | Posted on by Andy Gardner

On Saturday 30th October, I took a walk to my local playing fields to take some photos of a football match – Willen FC vs Stewkley in the Premier Division of the North Bucks & District League.

It was a cracking match – Willen went into the break two down, but after switching to a more direct style of play in the second half, they turned the game on its head to win 3-2 with a last-gasp, direct free kick – and that despite a moment of controversy when they had a goal ruled out after the ball cannoned off the crossbar, onto the goal-line and back out, a la Geoff Hurst in ’66. Where’s VAR when you need it?

Anyway, I took a bunch of photos – these are probably the pick of them (or at least man as I had time/patience to develop on a Sunday morning!)

  • The winning goal – a well struck free-kick that evaded the Stewkley ‘keeper and snuck into the bottom corner.
  • The moment of controversy – Willen’s forward beat the advancing ‘keeper, but his shot bounced down from the crossbar onto the line. I couldn’t see if it was in, so we’ll have to trust the lino.
  • In the second half, Willen went more direct and played everything through their number 6 – it paid off and he scored two of the goals, both direct free kicks.
  • Classic.

Exile, Imposter or Just Another Fan

Posted on by Andy Gardner

After such a long time away from being a match-going supporter, was it slightly ambitious to think it would all just be like it was?

Twelve years is a surprisingly long time. That’s how long it had been since I last saw the team I watched most growing up, Plymouth Argyle, in actual live action. There’s numerous reasons for that, central to which was geography but equally important was an overall waning of interest in football and, therefore, a reduced willingness to part with cash for the experience.

The last Argyle game I saw was a Championship fixture in September 2009 at Peterborough, with Plymouth manager Paul Sturrock in his second spell at the club leading the Greens to a 2-1 win thanks to goals from Jamie Mackie and Rory Fallon. It was Argyle’s first win of the 2009/10 season and ultimately both sides would be relegated to League 1.

Fast forward to October 2021 and so much has changed for me – house purchases, changes of career, weight loss, marathons and loads of other memories wiped out by late nights and their supporting substances. In that time, I’d almost totally lost interest and energy for football – no longer a game or the never-ending soap opera it once was, now more of a corporate content factory where victory in the transfer window and social media bear pit trumps actual form on the pitch. Announce Icardi! Take the ratio, admin.

At the height of the pandemic-enforced global lockdown, many of us fell back on nostalgia to replace the hope vacuum created by an uncertain future. I spent a lot of time thinking about my favourite football memories and why they particularly stuck in my mind. Almost exclusively, my personal highlights revolved around watching matches in the flesh and sharing that experience, with friends, family and total strangers. Having televised games on wall-to-wall during lockdown was fine, but watching a series of ghost games played out in front of empty stadiums with canned audio only underscored what was missing, both from matchdays but also my own existence.

An Argyle fan places a flag in position before kick off at the Kassam Stadium

So far this season, I’ve enjoyed going to watch matches again, taking in games at stadiumMK as a season ticket holder at MK Dons. However, the ambition this year was always to re-connect with Argyle and try to see them in action whenever their away fixtures brought them close to my Buckinghamshire home. The first such match, after having failed to get a ticket within the sold-out allocation at Wimbledon, was a trip to Oxford United’s Kassam Stadium.

It was hard to know how the game would go as a lapsed, exiled fan – I don’t have a Westcountry accent so I would probably stand out a mile. I also don’t have the knowledge of the team that more committed supporters build up over years of comings and goings, so what if I seem like some kind of bandwagon jumper, especially seeing as the team are, at time of writing, top of League 1, having enjoyed a fantastic start. What might happen if I was seen as some kind of imposter, taking up the place of a proper fan among the 1,800 away fans?

I was apprehensive, nervous really, about trying to be a fan again, which is crazy really – I’m a middle-aged man who has been to hundreds of games in my time at all kinds of levels. But wanting to be a part of something, a community, and to share that experience creates a huge fear of rejection and humiliation.

Very soon it became clear that those fears were irrational and unnecessary. The game itself was a rollercoaster and was perfect for this return to being a fan – Argyle were behind early, then equalised quickly and went in at half time 2-1 up. Oxford then wasted a series of chances after the interval, but Plymouth weathered the storm and eventually doubled the lead in the closing stages.

Argyle fans and players celebrate the 3-1 win at Oxford

All the emotions of supporting a team came flooding back – the disappointment of conceding early, the relief of an unexpected equaliser and the joy of seeing a game turned on its head. Then the nerves of seeing your team pushed back, waiting for the inevitable levelling of the scores and ultimately the surreal sealing of the win with the third goal. The pantomime jeering of an opposition player with the temerity to celebrate his goal and the hero-worshipping of a midfielder from Guinea-Bissau who was born the year I took my GCSEs (Panutche Camara, scorer of two goals against Oxford, in case you were wondering).

I’d expected to be something of a detached observer, quietly taking in the game and making astute observations (not that I normally do this anyway, but still). Instead, I found myself completely unbridled, on my feet from the early exchanges and joining in all the songs as best I can – it always did feel odd to me to proclaim Plymuff Argo as the greatest team the world has ever seen, not because they’re not excellent, but because my Home Counties diction struggles with the colloquialism.

Argyle’s fans are terrific. I was sat in the quieter of the three blocks, but the noisy and boisterous support on either side was infectious and it felt totally normal to be sharing the game with the elderly couple on my left and the guy on the right who was enjoying a day out with his boy seeing as his under 11s game had been played the night before.

I’d worried before the game that I wasn’t a fan any more, that I was too aloof and too distant from actual supporters to be able to enjoy the experience, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. My whole desire to get back in touch with football fandom was fuelled by nostalgia – powerful memories from my youth, shared with friends, strangers and, particularly, my parents. Football may have totally changed in those times, but it’s also exactly the same, depending where you look.

Above all else, it was a sense of normality and regularity that I took from the game – no questions about the bigger picture, the future of the sport or the potential damage being done by financial disparity and European Super Leagues. No concerns over foreign ownership, petrostate transfer budgets or games being moved to fit TV schedules – just a football match, three points and then onto the next one.

It was simple, uncomplicated and energising. I’d expected to feel like a fish out of water and for the game itself to be relatively low standard – that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Because I felt invested in the outcome, it was exciting, enjoyable and it felt like it mattered, which is something I’d really missed from my match going hiatus.

Prior to the start of the season, Argyle were expected by many to struggle, maybe even candidates for relegation after a terrible finish to the last campaign. The fact that they are currently top of the table, admittedly having played more games than those around them, just shows the unpredictable nature of football outside the ‘big six’ Premier League bubble.

Whether or not Plymouth stay in the race for promotion is unlikely but also irrelevant – just that there is the opportunity to do so is what makes the sport exciting.